Tag: handphone

Huawei P9 is the latest flagship phone introduced early this year, along with P9 Lite & P9 Plus. Huawei is commonly known to be introducing flagship-standard phone at a much affordable price. P9 is no exception with its retail price of $768 during their first launch. It is one of the most affordable flagship when you consider the fact that it is the easiest entry to get yourself into the Leica bandwagon.

At 6.95mm, Huawei P9 is the slimmest flagship phone introduced this year so far. Consider it an achievement as Huawei managed to squeeze in a 3000mAh battery and managed to avoid the dreaded camera bump at the back of the phone.

On the back of the P9, an additional fingerprint sensor was added, a great improvement from last year omission from Huawei P8 where fingerprint sensor are becoming mainstream on flagship devices.

5.2 inches display are vibrant and sharp despite only having the resolution of Full HD 1920×1080. At screen PPI of 423 pixels/inch, it is almost impossible to distinguish each pixel from a usual viewing length and angle.

Performance
Huawei is one of the only few companies that produce their own chipset for their devices, P9 is using brand new octa-core Kirin 955 CPU, an slight upgrade from previous Huawei Mate 8.

Daily usage proven to be smooth & responsive despite the fact that benchmarking are considerably lower than other flagship running on Snapdragon processor.

Huawei’s own power manager are able to identify the power-hunger application and shut it off when needed, along with Android 6.0 Marshmallow’s Doze function. Users of Huawei P9 are able to get a decent amount of screen on time without reaching for the charger in the midday. Huawei P9 will be available with 32GB/3GB RAM & 64GB/4GB RAM version. With the help of Huawei’s Power Manager, I did not experience any occasion where application are forced close due to lack of memory. I am able to run multiple app at once without any lag.

Leica-certified Camera

Duo camera phone has been here for years, from 3D camera to purely creating bokeh effect, no one seems to have an idea what to do with the second rear camera. Unlike others phones where the second rear camera are often an assistance to create effects, Huawei P9’s second camera can actually work on its own. The co-development with Leica results in one of the most interesting duo camera set up so far – a pure monochrome camera.

Leica users should be familiar with their monochrome camera series that only shoot in B&W. Huawei P9 works exactly like that without a color filter array on the sensor, hence the sensor is able to take in as much lights as possible.

With the duo camera setup, P9 is said to be able to capture 270% more light than typical smartphone these days despite the fact that the F stop is at F2.2 for both 12 megapixels sensor.

Focusing is assisted by laser focus to provide fast focusing. Duo-LED flashlight are also here for your night shooting need, though I would not recommend using any flashlight for shooting on phone but the overall quality remains acceptable.

Monochrome camera

Only one word to describe the monochrome camera performance – Stunning. Details are kept to their best – as opposed to taking a color photo and covert it to B&W. Check out the monochrome photo sample below!

RGB camera

The usual camera benefits from the help of monochrome camera & laser focusing. Color turns out to be accurate and night time shot does not suffer from shutter lag.

Wide Aperture Mode

Huawei P9 make use of the duo camera set up to produce a realistic bokeh – RGB camera taking the usual shot while monochrome calculate the focal distance. With P9’s top tier processor & camera application, you are able to view the bokeh effect live while shooting photos without any lag. Noted that the effect can be best achieve within 2 meter distance.

Pro & Other Modes

The overall UI are different from usual Huawei phone we’ve seen so far. With the collaboration with Leica, the camera UI has been revamped with the standard Leica interfaces.

While the amount of different mode seems to be overkill, there are a good reason to it.

Pro mode is available for both RGB & monochrome camera. Photographers will appreciate the whole range of customizable setting similar to a standard DSLR.

Swiping left & right on the camera app will brings you to various mode (HDR,Night mode & time-lapse, to name a few)

I particularly love the light-painting mode. In light-painting mode, there are four different choices given – Trail lights, Light graffiti, Silky water & Star track. What sets P9 light-painting mode apart from pro mode is that P9 took the photo in right exposure first, and you are freely to add in any lighting effect for almost an unlimited time period without risking the photo being over-exposed.

(Trail lights)

(Light graffiti)

(Silky Water)

Conclusion

With the expectation of camera innovation raised so high this year. Huawei P9 has proven to be a worthy contender for this camera race for 2016. Along with the affordable price, slim design & Leica-certified camera, it is hard not to recommend Huawei P9 to everyone this year.

Bonus

Do you know that Huawei is the first to introducing a warranty scheme that last more than one year?

You are able to get up to two year of prestige warranty for your Huawei P9, along with one year of free screen protect (changing of screen within one year due to screen crack). Huawei also provided a Google app called HiCare (installed on P9) that can provide you with more tips & contacting services to ensure you that Huawei is always there for you when you required assistance.

Sony announced today two new phones that are better than your average mid range ones. The Xperia C5 Ultra features two 13-megapixel cameras and an innovative near borderless 6” Full HD display. On the other hand, the Xperia M5 is like a slightly smaller Xperia Z3+, with an innovative 21.5 MP hybrid autofocus camera that uses one of the best Sony mobile imaging sensor, and is friendly on the pocket too.

The HTC One M9 was announced yesterday, the successor to the HTC One M8. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” is the mantra adopted once again. While a significant majority are complaining that the design is stale, I think that’s harsh as the One M8 was one of the nicest looking Android phones last year and the M9 retains the similar looks, with minor improvements all around. It may not warrant an upgrade if you are holding on to a current gen HTC One M8, especially if you are satisfied with the camera, but otherwise the One M9 should be in contention as one of the better phones in 2015.

The HTC One M9 Retains the Same Good Looks

The design on the One M8 was excellent, and HTC chose to continue with it. Many people are upset with HTC’s lack of change, but the fact of the matter is that the design is still good. Perhaps, a phone is as much a fashion statement as a tech gadget, and for the design to remain largely the same after two seasons is a serious fashion faux pas.

From the front, you might be hard pressed to distinguish between the two phones. The One M9 is just slightly slimmer and lighter. The back is a little more obvious, with the squarish camera lens, and a less aggressive curve on the back for better ergonomics. The power button is now relocated from the top to the right for easier activation. This was an improvement that HTC did on the Desire Eye as well. Other improvements also see the separation of the volume button into two separate buttons, textured surface on the power button, and dual finish color tones.

The main gripe of the HTC One M8 remains. That is the waste of the bezel space with the HTC logo. That’s a lot of front surface territory that is not utilized, but it is due to the screen electronics and also the BoomSound speakers. But I much prefer the inclusion of BoomSound over the additional bezel space required. It is a pity that the HTC One M7 (two generations ago) actually utilised the space better as hardware capacitive buttons instead.

Another disappointment in terms of design was the continued use of the Dot Case. I think it’s quite the ugly accessory for a sleek phone. It just doesn’t match. One improvement is the transparent back that protects your phone without hiding it from the world.

Four reasons to pick the HTC One M9 over the Samsung Galaxy S6

The iNO SCOUT 2 offers some useful upgrades over last year iNO Scout 1, and remains as the toughest non-camera phone for the Singapore market. The processor sees a slight upgrade and now offers 4x more internal memory as compared to the first generation version. The software has also been upgraded and the iNo Scout 2 runs on Android 4.4 Kitkat. It retains the same rubber ruggedised side protection but the new model is also slimmer at 16.5mm. No worries on bringing the phone outfield thatnks to the IP67 rating and the shock proof protection.

HTC unveiled the HTC Desire 826 at CES but it would be launching in China first, followed by other Asian Pacific countries. Externally, it looks rather similar to their recently released Desire Eye series, and is poised for the mid range market. HTC hopes the HTC Desire 826 will help people take better photos, enjoy improved surround sound, and express themselves with bold design, colors and materials.

The Hardware Stuff

HTC was the first smartphone company to come up with dual front-facing stereo speakers and generally still lead the pack with their BoomSound experience. They have taken one step further with the Desire 826, which now includes Dolby Audio surround sound. Sounds like overkill to me on a phone, but might be something interesting to try out. It could be a feature we see in the upcoming HTC flagship (the rumoured M9) as well. The Desire 826 will feature dual front-facing stereo speakers, a finely tuned sound profile and Dolby’s decoding technology to deliver an end-to-end multi-channel audio solution. Depending on your location, the Desire 826 might be packaged with an audiophile-grade headset that is carefully tuned for HTC BoomSound with Dolby Audio, delivering the cinematic surround sound experience wherever you are.

The HTC Desire Eye is the latest mobile phone from HTC. It is designed for selfie lovers, offering 13MP front and back camera with dual LED flashes and built-in photo editing tools to easily enhance your photos. Taking close up pictures of yourself has never been more popular and HTC Desire Eye is catered to this growing trend. While most other phone manufacturers instils a differentiation in the lens and imaging quality between the front and rear camera, the Desire Eye bucks the trend with one gigantic lens on the front. The HTC Desire Eye sports a front 13MP f/2.2 lens with dual LED flash which is perfect for those selfie shots in dim indoor areas, the appropriate scenario would be selfies in clubs, pubs, when lighting is often inadequate. The other similar phone catered to selfie lovers would be from OPPO, with their iconic swivel camera.

Despite holding the “Desire” series moniker, which tends to be HTC mid range phones, the specs on the Desire Eye are comparable to that of their flagship One M8, although that was released about 6 months ago.

Non camera phones can be quite hard to find. Yet, certain industries demand the usage of one for security reasons. We covered most of the non camera phone options previously in 2013, and the other two newer models this year were the iNo 2 and the iNo Scout. SGHITECH is a new entrant to this space, and they are set to release their new phone Excellence in a month’s time.